IYDIYD 2
The second day for us players, mind you; for the PCs and NPCs, it's still the same day. During the second session, the group continued to gather information on the problems plaguing Hastenport and track down antagonists from the shiver trade and/or the cult of Sholaith. Here are the main things I have noted the party as having unearthed (the stuff from the first session is appended further below): 1) The party identified the mobile coffee-selling business "Rise and Shine" as having become the street-level lifeblood of the Grey Citadel district. Jon took advantage of this to pay the coffee-sellers to advertise his upcoming concert; the party also took the opportunity to follow the coffee-men and query their customers about the plague of nightmares. 2) By questioning the coffee customers and some other people around town, the party learned that nightmares are afflicting many, but not all, citizens of the district, and that some people's nightmares are much more severe than others (leaving some sufferers in an exhausted/fatigued state, while others report just normal-grade frightening dreams.) Some fear a supernatural reason for the nightmares, but most seem to believe the story that shiver dealers are poisoning the well water. 3) However, an alchemical examination of the well water revealed no traces of hallucinogens, and the party also encountered a guard by the well who averred that not only does he drink well water and suffer no nightmares, but that the inmates at the jail where he works are also fed well water and suffer no appreciable level of nightmares. The party asked Captain Jolene Black to experiment on the inmates by giving them water drawn from the well at different times of day to see if that changed their sleep quality. 4) Tracing the items pawned by Donaway before his demise, the party learned that two of the Market Square booksellers he tried to sell the Book of Dreams to have died this week (one evidently overdosed on shiver, while the other apparently committed suicide by slitting his own throat.) The proprietor at the Curio Shoppe confirmed that Donaway had tried to sell him the book for an exorbitant price (1800 gp-- he said he considered the book to be worth 700gp at most) and he declined. The party also bought a scroll with an "Enter Dreamscape" spell from one of the surviving booksellers, who said it was his last copy... after some questioning, the party determined that he had sold another scroll with the same spell to Gravil about a week ago. 5) The party asked Captain Black for more information about the deaths in the Grey Citadel during the past two months. She explained that it was difficult to know exactly how many deaths there were, since some of the dead are still-unidentified out-of-towners, some residents have been reported missing and never found, and other people later found dead had never been reported missing. She also mentioned that the tailor, Ariana, was thought to have committed suicide but was later found alive and well in Riell, where she had simply relocated suddenly without telling anyone. She confirmed that the bookseller, Othaso, had slit his own throat this week, and added that other unusual recent deaths included the baker's daughter, Marnie, who had stabbed herself to death, and three young women found dead in the water near the pier, where they were presumed to have been swimming under the influence and drowned. Finally, she stated that since there was no evidence of foul play at Gravil's house she would not open a murder case, but she noted down everything the party said in a file in case more evidence emerged. 6) The party went down to the docks to investigate the drowning deaths, and were flagged down by a street urchin named Kit who said she had been sent by one of the junkies Jon had asked to contact him with any more information about Greeley. Greeley's men, according to Kit, were having a meeting in the fishing shack at the end of the pier. The group stealthily approached to eavesdrop on them, and overheard them discussing a witch called "Black Mollie," who one of the ruffians believed to be behind the city's nightmares-- according to him, a friend dreamed about being grabbed by her recently and woke up with real scratch marks on her arms. At that point the dock was assaulted by an unnatural 15' storm surge which proved to be caused by a hydrodemon which attempted to kill the party. Despite some near-drownings caused by the demon knocking people unconscious and trapping them underwater, the battle was eventually won and the demon banished back to whence it had come. The ruffians in the flooded fishing shack were all found dead, though the party concluded that something other than ordinary drowning must have played a role in their death. One of them was carrying a note from Greeley in a watertight scroll case telling them to meet at the fishing shack and take out some meddlers, which the party decided to take as evidence of attempted murder against them and acquired a warrant for Greeley's arrest. 7) The party broke into Greeley's house only to find he had already mostly moved out (a process the party deduced must have begun long before the ambush at the pier.) Easily defeating two rogues who were helping move the last of his belongings out in boxes, the party was ambushed by an animated statue which beat the hell out of Jon before eventually being dispatched. Meanwhile, Red and her raptor sidekick managed to capture Greeley before he could escape through a secret door to the balcony. Jon's attempt to get information out of Greeley by intimidating him with the warrant backfired as Greeley immediately asked to be taken to the Magistrate, apparently genuinely sure he had committed no crime. He claimed never to have seen the note in the scroll case before, and the party determined that the note was actually not in his handwriting and also held a faint Abyssal dweomer. However, Aler found a catechism book from the church of Altaris under his bed with the remark "The souls of those we've sacrificed are coming to avenge our sins!" written in the back of it in Greeley's writing. The bookmark was also a folded note from "Genevieve" asking him to help find the book that had been stolen from her. Greeley acknowledged having left the Brotherhood of Sholaith and turned to the Church of Altaris, and provided the address of the cult compound. He had a particularly haggard look to him and muttered several times about being "haunted," "cursed," and in need of forgiveness. He insisted he had conspired to no murders, though, and went willingly to the Grey Citadel to be deposed. 8) The magistrate immediately had a warrant issued for the party to assault the cult compound; "as soon as possible, before they get wind of Greeley's arrest." He also identified Genevieve as one of the leaders of the cult, along with a man called Arthon. Killing both of them, he suggested, would be a great service to the city. 9) The party encountered another one of those peculiar haunt-like visions at Ariana's tailor shop, which has been shuttered and now serves as the staging ground for the coffee vendors. Red saw bloodstains in the coffee grinder, which were gone when she went back to look again. When Red and Adriel peered into the abandoned shop through one of the windows, they felt a distortion of reality and heard the eerie giggling of children and saw the impressions of small footprints track across the dust on the floor. Aluon also perceived a haunting in the Curio Shoppe, but he ignored it and didn't choose to tell his teammates about it. The four haunts the party had encountered previously are re-listed in the old message below. The party did not notice any haunting, distortion of reality, or peculiar thinness between worlds during the fight with the Hydrodemon. I'll send round the results of the PC's evening investigations as soon as I get a chance, and we will open our third and final session of the adventure with the late-night assault on the cult compound (perhaps preceded by a cutscene of Aler at Vanessa's house.) See everyone in May! Laura